HOW to practice...advice from our experts requested.

[StPatrick]

Having been involved as a coach and participant in other sports, I know that dedicated practice is the only thing that allows a person to reach their "personal best" level; that being the point where their natural abilities are maxed out.

Everyone says "practice makes perfect", but I disagree. Practice makes permanent - perfect practice makes perfect.

The conventional wisdom says "shoot 1000s of rounds, and you'll improve", and I agree, to a point. Do anything enough, and your consistency will improve. However, if you're not practicing the right things, you are also making bad habits permanent. If you've ever played golf, you know what I mean...Good luck getting better if you ingrain the swing that shoots you an 88 every time out.

So, what makes for "perfect practice" regarding accuracy with a pistol? What are the 2-3 key things to focus on every trip to the range?

On its face, this probably seems like a dumb question, but I haven't been able to find authoritative sources describing a dry and live-fire practice regimen to follow.

As always, your input and suggestions are appreciated.

[Mike]

pistol-training.com » Drills

Get a timer and start working down the list. Keep a log so you can see if what you are doing is improving your times and accuracy.

Mix your drills up too. you don't want to just keep doing the same drill over and over to get better at the drill.

Dryfire practice mostly consists(for me), of practicing my draw, presentation and sight picture.

ETA: Also, practice just as much with your weakhand and in odd positions. I.E. the ground, lying on your side, prone, etc.

Mike

Edited October 26, 2010 by Mike

[kesava]

Shoot from the draw.

-see how many shots you can get into the 9 ring in 3 seconds. have a buddy tap you on the back, draw and shoot. Start the 3 seconds timer on the tap.

-alternate between speed and accuracy drills, a mixture of both is best

Blind load a mag with a snap cap mixed in.

-tap/rack/bang drill.

Shoot while crouching.

-a **** load harder than it sounds

[bigwakes]

I do dry fire exercises at home. Place an empty cartridge on the muzzle and dry fire. Make sure the cartridge never moves. I also get a sight picture, close my eyes, dry fire, and then open my eyes to make sure the muzzle never moved. There are 100's of websites dedicated to trigger control, breathing, and grip. Those sights also help troubleshoot your grip, low left indicates anticipating recoil for a right handed shooter, etc.

[BigK]

I think dry-firing is one of the most under-rated tools for improving trigger control. I have a DA/SA pistol and have really gotten better at the DA trigger pull this way. My laser grip helps with this a lot, b/c I can aim at a dime taped to the wall and keep the dot on the dime all the way through the trigger pull.

When I'm concentrating on accuracy over speed at the range, I keep the trigger pressed all the way to the rear after each shot. Once I've re-established my sight picture, I concentrate on letting the trigger out slowly to feel the reset. This keeps me from slapping the trigger on the next shot and forces me to slow down.

[gotigers]

+1 for what Mike said.

Dry fire, reloading (unloaded mag and gun) and draw at home. You can do these in spare time without dragging everything to the range.

drills, drills, drills. Include some drills with movement.

use a timer. How do you know you are improving without a timer.

find your weapon's POA/POI from a bench

Take a class, so you are practicing the correct technic. Have someone practice with you. They can watch you and tell you what you are doing wrong or right.

Edited October 26, 2010 by gotigers

[gregintenn]

Great qusetion. If, by chance, you are a revolver guy, I'd suggest the book "Sixguns By Keith" written by Elmer Keith.

[Mike]

For revolvers I HIGHLY recommend a Tom Givens revolver class. It is a wonderful class and really gets you running your revolver hard.

Mike

[Guest Guy N. Cognito]

Go slow. Master the mechanics of a perfect draw at half speed.

Dry fire is important to master trigger control. It is no substitute, however, for putting rounds downrange.

If you try to master 5 five guns at once, expect nothing less than average. Pick a platform and stick with it.

Pick a gun and caliber you can shoot..... A lot. If you can't put more than 50 rounds downrange from your 3", aluminum frame 1911 .45 before you start flinching, consider a bigger gun or a smaller caliber. Remember, no round is a proven manstopper, and a hit is better than a miss every time.

Constantly challenge yourself. If your drilling the 10 ring at 7 yards every time, push it further back until you start missing. Master that distance, then push it farther. Put yourself on a timer and push your speed.

Practice the stuff you hate. Weak hand, kneeling, prone, suppine. If you don't like it, you're probably not very good at it.

[timcalhoun]

Having been involved as a coach and participant in other sports, I know that dedicated practice is the only thing that allows a person to reach their "personal best" level; that being the point where their natural abilities are maxed out.

Everyone says "practice makes perfect", but I disagree. Practice makes permanent - perfect practice makes perfect.

The conventional wisdom says "shoot 1000s of rounds, and you'll improve", and I agree, to a point. Do anything enough, and your consistency will improve. However, if you're not practicing the right things, you are also making bad habits permanent. If you've ever played golf, you know what I mean...Good luck getting better if you ingrain the swing that shoots you an 88 every time out.

So, what makes for "perfect practice" regarding accuracy with a pistol? What are the 2-3 key things to focus on every trip to the range?

On its face, this probably seems like a dumb question, but I haven't been able to find authoritative sources describing a dry and live-fire practice regimen to follow.

As always, your input and suggestions are appreciated.

You said a lot of what is important to know. I guess I would ask you what is your goal?

As many have mentioned, dry fire is important, but what is more important is dry firing with good technique. You sure don't want to put into muscle memory bad habits. It really helps when you have someone to watch you, since most are not aware of the poor technique they are repeating. As you know, a bad habit will keep you from getting better at some point, and to get better you will have to break the bad habit anyway and sooner is way better than later.

As far as trigger control for practical pistol application you have two schools of thought, slapping and pinning. Rob Leatham is one who slaps the trigger 100% of the time while most do a combination of both. Guys who teach the pinning technique (I am one) pin the trigger for targets that are far enough away to do so, and then slap it when targets are closer. Those distances are different depending on your skill level. Beginners should pin the trigger at all distances at first until their skill level dictates otherwise. Bottom line and to paraphrase Rob, "it doesn't matter which method you use as long as your sights are right the moment the gun goes bang". Way easier said than done right? LOL Bullseye and pure accuracy shooting is a total different ball game but is also important to know how to do.

I would suggest getting together with someone who is up on modern technique, (Much instruction is about 20 years behind the curve BTW) and making sure your technique is sound and then get Steve Anderson's book titled Refinement and Repetition. That is a good start.

[Guest The Highlander]

I saw the thread title and was hoping Tim would chime in at some point. Thanks for the book reference.

I am a good example of older technique, and learning how to do things a new way is quite difficult. I am from the bullseye era, and was taught precision shooting. Pistolcraft was based on the Weaver, or in my case, the Modified Weaver. That was the state of the art at the time.

Todays shooters can easily shoot with just as much or more precision, and do it while reloading and running. Blows my mind to watch Leatham and Todd Jarrett, and the other top shooters. I'm still in the breath control, shooting is Zen-like control of your body stage. But I'm trying!

Keep the tips coming guys.

The Highlander

[Dolomite_supafly]

As was said before make sure your techniques you are practicing are good techniques. I have shot my entire life and up until 2005 I had some bad habits. It has taken me a lot of practice since then to rid myself of those habits and in the process I have gotten more accurate as well as quicker.

Start everything in slow motion and have a knowledgeable buddy or even video tape yourself to check yourself as you go. Once you get the correct basics down then start to speed up and continue until your accuracy drops off. At that point you have reached a shelf that your need to spend some time and practice at before you start sqeaking the last little bit of skill out.

Thanks for the link to the drills. I am definitely needing some more stuff to practice.

Dolomite

[Guest CK1]

No expert here, but still may have something to offer...

Think the biggest thing to do in order to improve is when you hit the range, remember to force yourself to practice what you're NOT good at, instead of just burning up all your ammo doing what you're used to doing or what comes easy. Guess the same thing applies whether it's a musical instrument, a sport (like Golf) or anything else that's enjoyable to participate in but requires practice and dedication to improve at. Examples can be myriad: if you only shoot slow-fire, maybe work on shooting faster, if you never practice shooting-from-the-draw, allocate a box or so to it, never go past 15 yards... you get the idea.

As everyone has said, dry-fire is key, maybe more impact-full than live-fire in many ways, and of course, it costs nothing. Like you said, and like Tim added, if you're not practicing proper technique, and just ingraining bad habits, then you're not doing yourself any good and not really accomplishing anything - so try to always remind yourself to keep it honest.

Beyond the usual thing that most guys tend to put most of their emphasis on during dry-fire; trigger-control, I'd implore you to spend at least equal time on getting your grip-technique really together, more than anything I can think of getting out of dry-fire, think getting my grip-technique nailed down has helped the most, don't be afraid or opposed to re-teaching yourself from scratch if you have to, it's that important (and after you do you'll notice it's amazing how many guys you'll see at the range who are just never going to reach their full potential as a shooter using the poor grip they're using, and if you ask them about it many will give explanations like: "that's the way I've always done it" or "this way just works best for me", saying basically "I've never really thought about it" or "this feels best for me").

Also was mentioned: +1 the ol' "beware the man who only owns one gun" philosophy. Pick a "Main/Primary" weapon and focus your training while using that one, go to the rage and leave the others home for a while, maybe take a month and only shoot that one... Practicing means working on the "Indian", not the "arrow" - different platforms will just complicate the journey.

Lastly, living where we do region-wise, I'd implore you to get involved in some of the shooting sports going on around here like IDPA and/or IPSC, because IMO nothing makes you better, faster, then by shooting with better shooters than yourself.

Sometimes it's just noticing something other shooters are doing that you don't and asking why, sometimes it's "light-bulb over-head" moments that happen when you see something that you've never maybe really put any thought into, in general you're putting yourself in the midst of a group of shooters who are on the same "quest" you are so there's lots of knowledge being shared and gained (plus it's FUN AS HELL!).

Attending formal training classes and workshops is great, but they're usually pretty expensive and while many of them are incredible, with incredible instructors, many of them are also pretty behind-the-times technique-wise and feature instructors who maybe should still be students, besides, even the better off among us probably can't afford to swing a $500 class each and every weekend and still stay married (LOL). IMO the shooting games like IDPA/IPSC can offer an avenue to work-on and build many of the same skills you'd encounter at the better formal training classes out there, except there's usually a match going on somewhere within driving distance every single weekend and you can usually attend just about all of them with only 50-150rds and $20 (most are free the first time out). It's more about fun than competition, but make no mistake, competition is the crucible where the best modern handgun techniques are developed and refined, some of the best guys you'll see out there on any given Saturday or Sunday are guys tied to SWAT/Military/LE (and some are just Contractors, Musicians, Insurance Agents, IT guys, Mechanics, etc. who just happen to know how to hold it down with a pistol).

Edited October 26, 2010 by CK1
not enough practice spelling...

[McAllyn]

I'm a big fan of breaking down techniques into their smallest parts, then I practice all the parts individually. I'm pretty dense, so working on an entire movement (like sharpen target focus, draw from holster, build grip, pick up sites, present to target, solidify site focus, contact trigger, actuate trigger, watch sites drop back into place, reaquire target, switch back to site focus, actuate trigger again... etc.) is WAAYYY too much for me to work on all at once. I practice each one of those steps individually, and while I'm still terrible, it's made a remarkable difference.

Mac

[ttocswob]

One added practice thought, from a musicians' perspective: Ten minutes of practice per day, every day, is better than a three hour marathon, once a month. Dry fire (as well as techniques like those above) help to accomplish this between range trips.